I do not own Maximum Ride. (I have disclaimed.)

Maximum Ride All Over Again – Part II

Chapter 9

Iggy jumped up from his seat, pulling Ella with him and headed directly into the kitchen. It was about lunch time so we decided we'd eat and stretch before starting the next part of this second book of our lives.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Mom asked, glancing between me, Fang, and Jeb. I shook my head.

"For now, the worst parts over," I said, grabbing Fang's hand and standing up. "We can really talk after all of this. After we get every word of the story, that's when I'll talk about it."

Fang nodded beside me, gripping my hand a little harder. I wriggled my shoulders, relaxing my wings a little and the younger kids got excited. "Yes! Last one in the air does the dishes!" Gasman cried out, jumping off the couch and running outside.

I grinned at Fang and he shook his head, "Oh, please no," his eyes said.

"Oh, Hell yes," mine said back and without a word spoken I bolted us out the door and into the sky, making Nudge nearly fall as Fang smacked her with a wing.

"Hey!" She called and flew up after us.

"You're it!" Fang called out and let go of my hand once we were some 500 feet in the air. He free fell for a hundred or so, then whipped out his wings and flew toward the roof below, taunting Nudge. She shrieked and tore after him.

I laughed as Fang, smacked by Nudge's wing, barrel rolled and fell for another hundred feet before climbing quickly to catch Angel who was doing flips above Gasman.

He grazed her lightly with his wing and she swiftly took after her brother who was flying a little was in front of me. When he realized that Angel was coming for him, he waited till the last second, then folded his wings and dropped like a stone. Angel, being the mindreader she was, anticipated his move and quickly flipped down and flapped hard, they pulled up right at the last second, my heart pounding watching them, but I knew they were okay. As Angel got close to him, she spun and flew in the opposite direction, smacking him with her white wings as she did so.

Gasman froze midstroke and rolled to the ground, not far, just 5 or so feet. He continued the motion and used it to propel himself off the ground and back into the air after his sister yelling "Come back here!"

I flew over to Fang and we played with the shadows our wings made on the desertlike ground below us. Then a little black cannonball of a dog flopped on to my back causing me to lose balance and crash onto Fang who, in the process of dodging me, crashed into Nudge who fell into Gazzer who started losing altitude again. Angel quickly flew over and scooped Total up to get him off me.

We fell to the ground in a tangle of feathers and limbs.

"Okay," I said, extracting my wing from under Fangs leg as he spit a feather of Nudge's out of his mouth. "Next time you decide to jump on my back, Total, you're grounded."

"Hmph," he said. "I just wanted in on the game of tag."

I rolled my eyes. "Next time, just say so."

I stood, stretched my limbs and was happy to realize that I was unscathed, save for a couple scratches. But no broken bones or sprains.

Gazzer didn't come out so lucky. He stood, but grimaced as he set himself on his feet and did a selfcheck. I walked over after making sure Fang and Nudge were okay. Angel alighted on the ground a ways away from Gazzy but kept her distance till I could look at him, like we used to when everyone was learning to fly.

"What hurts?" I asked, as he winced and frowned.

"Ankle, elbow, wrist," he listed, testing each as he said and I could hear the slight strain as he tried to not let on how much it hurt.

Not too bad, but I walked him inside, followed by the others. I gestured to mom to come over to him as he sat down on a stool at the counter to watch while Iggy and Ella finished up lunch. She felt his bones and wrapped them up with some ice, and told him they'd probably be fine by the end of the day with our quick healing.

We had fruit, sandwiches and lemonade all provided by Chefs Iggy and Ella, then gathered back in the living room, in our usual seats, ready to continue this strange form of torture.

Angel picked up the book, and turned to where Gazzy left off.

Part 2. Paradise or Prison?

AN:

Phew. Ideas, guys, send them in. I need some sort of ideas on what you want to see happen between readings!

Thanks for hanging in their guys! I'm starting work on the next chapter (or set of, rather) right now.

And one last thing: I have a riddle for you. (No googling please…)

When the snow melts, what does it become?

Fly on!

~Jezi Raewin